MPS Superintendent Michael Sharrow told the board that other bond-funded work to be done soon includes track resurfacing at Midland Community Stadium. Sharrow also said design phase work for new security entrances for existing schools will soon be put out for bids.

Associate Superintendent Robert Cooper said MCESA general fund revenues are projected to be $17.95 million, while expenditures are estimated to be $18.03 million. Special education revenues are projected at $14.32 million and expenditures are $14.27 million.

Cooper said MCESA continues to work on cost controls but the agency is “still slightly in deficit.”

The internet upgrades are being coordinated by MCESA, and the MPS board gave its approval for the agency to move ahead with the purchase of hardware by existing internet provider MCoNet, “which will enable our internet connection to increase beyond the 1.0 Gbps of bandwidth that we currently share as a county,” according to the board’s meeting agenda. The total cost is $106,396, of which MPS is paying (based on student population) $53,197.

The board also approved the purchase of bus routing software that will eventually be able to provide real-time, GPS-based tracking of buses. For now, Cooper said the software will be a great improvement over the district’s existing software. The cost is just over $30,000.

Much of the meeting was devoted to spotlighting accomplishments of students and teachers.

Video of Siebert students, presented by the school’s IB coordinator Amy Sabourin, showed students discussing “Taking action,” “When I was a thinker,” “I am a caring person” and “People strive for justice.” A particularly impressive clip showed three fifth-graders discussing teamwork and collaboration, with one offering the opinion, “You have to be able to work with people even if you don’t like them.” The three also discussed personal goals such as showing others more empathy and having more enthusiasm for certain school subjects.

Jen Servoss, IB PYP coordinator at Carpenter and Eastlawn, presented two Eastlawn fifth-graders who organized a book drive that collected over 300 “new and gently used” books for the school library as part of the “taking action” theme of PYP.

She also introduced McKenna Herkel, an Eastlawn third-grader who, after being bullied, helped create a video using role playing to “share the various perspectives on bullying.” The video showed what to do from the perspective of a bully, a student being bullied and bystanders who see a bullying incident.

H.H. Dow High School was presented with a $2,500 check as part of a 2016 “Education Excellence Award” for the program 20-time.

The program was devised by Dow High Spanish teacher Lisa Bonotto and English teacher Sarah Hechlik to inspire drive, inquiry, creativity, innovation and autonomy by allowing students 20 percent of the class time they spend with the two teachers to develop an “outcome-based” project based on a theme of the student’s choosing.

The teachers said their students had taken on a wide range of projects including building a drone, learning how to cook, learning a new language, photography and what service projects might be needed in Midland County.

“They set a goal and a lot of times they fail … (They find that) it’s OK to fail,” Bonotto said. Many other times they succeed and quickly move on to another project.

“It just gives the kids an opportunity one day a week to choose what they want to learn about,” she said.